Since my first two posts were more serious, I wanted to have fun with this one. All readers know what its like to receive recommendation emails. You probably don’t need them, but you don’t unsubscribe just in case one email has the perfect book. A week ago, I got a surprise.

I was recently reminded me that I had a conversation about Nancy Drew a month and a half ago. How did that happen? Well, I got an email with recommendations just for me. I never open these emails, but as fate would have it, I had to see what was inside this particular one.

Thanks for reminding me ThriftBooks (no seriously, I love you guys). I almost forgot I finally confessed to someone I’ve only read one Nancy Drew book even though I had a set as a child. As someone who works in advertising, I know how these emails happen. Marketing is getting so smart, its reminding me of embarrassing conversations. I call them creepy cookies, because they follow you around the internet to remind you of something you looked at. I swear, I am a professional.

I’ve recommended the Nancy Drew books for anyone wanting a light-hearted mystery for a grade school aged child. But have I really read them? Nope. Being a rebel, I couldn’t read them in order, so I picked The Hidden Staircase. I remember reading it at my grandparents’ house, the cover art, and the way the spine cracked when I finally opened it to read. It was glorious. Having brand new hardcover chapter books that were all mine; heaven.

However, I didn’t want to “ruin” any of the other books in the series. As you can see here, they sit looking pristine on my book shelf while other books crowd around it; along with a lot of other things I wish I could explain and/or forget about entirely from my decorating choices as a child.

You can see in the photo that they’re still shiny. I had even gotten additional books in the series that I planned on reading. You can also see the book I stole from my elementary school classroom. Sorry mom.

I’m proud to say I’ve been embracing used books over the past year. There’s something wonderful about passing a book on to someone else who might love it just as much as me. Just a few days ago, I found a bookmark in perfect condition from 2007.

And then there were 16? Sixteen what? Victims? Books? New releases? In all likelihood, it was a new edition of the Agatha Christie series about Hercule Poirot, but it’s fun to speculate. I’ve found notes in used books, quotes underlined, a love note (once), etc. Sure; I wasn’t the first person to open the book to read it, but I hope I’m not the last one. Especially if it was a great one. By the way, I didn’t start with the first book here either. Some things never change.

Do you have books that you pretend you already read? Were you or are you still someone who has to get the new books fresh from the bookstore? Did you also have weird decorating ideas as a child? Let me know!

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2 thoughts on “That time book marketing called me out”

I’ve started embracing used books too, mostly because I feel a bit guilty about the trees that have been sacrificed to build my library of mostly pristine books! However, used book smell’s got nothing on new book smell!